317 research outputs found
Localization of low-sulfur keratin proteins in the wool follicle using monoclonal antibodies.
Electric field representation of pulsar intensity spectra
Pulsar dynamic spectra exhibit high visibility fringes arising from
interference between scattered radio waves. These fringes may be random or
highly ordered patterns, depending on the nature of the scattering or
refraction. Here we consider the possibility of decomposing pulsar dynamic
spectra -- which are intensity measurements -- into their constituent scattered
waves, i.e. electric field components. We describe an iterative method of
achieving this decomposition and show how the algorithm performs on data from
the pulsar B0834+06. The match between model and observations is good, although
not formally acceptable as a representation of the data. Scattered wave
components derived in this way are immediately useful for qualitative insights
into the scattering geometry. With some further development this approach can
be put to a variety of uses, including: imaging the scattering and refracting
structures in the interstellar medium; interstellar interferometric imaging of
pulsars at very high angular resolution; and mitigating pulse arrival time
fluctuations due to interstellar scattering.Comment: 7 Pages, 2 Figures, revised version, accepted by MNRA
Simultaneous Absolute Timing of the Crab Pulsar at Radio and Optical Wavelengths
The Crab pulsar emits across a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Determining the time delay between the emission at different wavelengths will
allow to better constrain the site and mechanism of the emission. We have
simultaneously observed the Crab Pulsar in the optical with S-Cam, an
instrument based on Superconducting Tunneling Junctions (STJs) with s time
resolution and at 2 GHz using the Nan\c{c}ay radio telescope with an instrument
doing coherent dedispersion and able to record giant pulses data. We have
studied the delay between the radio and optical pulse using simultaneously
obtained data therefore reducing possible uncertainties present in previous
observations. We determined the arrival times of the (mean) optical and radio
pulse and compared them using the tempo2 software package. We present the most
accurate value for the optical-radio lag of 255 21 s and suggest the
likelihood of a spectral dependence to the excess optical emission asociated
with giant radio pulses.Comment: 8 pages; accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Resolving the Radio Source Background: Deeper Understanding Through Confusion
We used the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to image one primary beam
area at 3 GHz with 8 arcsec FWHM resolution and 1.0 microJy/beam rms noise near
the pointing center. The P(D) distribution from the central 10 arcmin of this
confusion-limited image constrains the count of discrete sources in the 1 <
S(microJy/beam) < 10 range. At this level the brightness-weighted differential
count S^2 n(S) is converging rapidly, as predicted by evolutionary models in
which the faintest radio sources are star-forming galaxies; and ~96$% of the
background originating in galaxies has been resolved into discrete sources.
About 63% of the radio background is produced by AGNs, and the remaining 37%
comes from star-forming galaxies that obey the far-infrared (FIR) / radio
correlation and account for most of the FIR background at lambda = 160 microns.
Our new data confirm that radio sources powered by AGNs and star formation
evolve at about the same rate, a result consistent with AGN feedback and the
rough correlation of black hole and bulge stellar masses. The confusion at
centimeter wavelengths is low enough that neither the planned SKA nor its
pathfinder ASKAP EMU survey should be confusion limited, and the ultimate
source detection limit imposed by "natural" confusion is < 0.01 microJy at 1.4
GHz. If discrete sources dominate the bright extragalactic background reported
by ARCADE2 at 3.3 GHz, they cannot be located in or near galaxies and most are
< 0.03 microJy at 1.4 GHz.Comment: 28 pages including 16 figures. ApJ accepted for publicatio
Cysteine-524 is not the only residue involved in the formation of disulphide-bonded dimers of the insulin receptor
Neutron star composition in strong magnetic fields
We study the problem of neutron star composition in the presence of a strong
magnetic field. The effects of the anomalous magnetic moments of both nucleons
and electrons are investigated in relativistic mean field calculations for a
-equilibrium system. Since neutrons are fully spin polarized in a large
field, generally speaking, the proton fraction can never exceed the field free
case. An extremely strong magnetic field may lead to a pure neutron matter
instead of a proton-rich matter.Comment: 12 pages, 3 postscript files include
The High Time Resolution Universe Pulsar Survey I: System configuration and initial discoveries
We have embarked on a survey for pulsars and fast transients using the
13-beam Multibeam receiver on the Parkes radio telescope. Installation of a
digital backend allows us to record 400 MHz of bandwidth for each beam, split
into 1024 channels and sampled every 64 us. Limits of the receiver package
restrict us to a 340 MHz observing band centred at 1352 MHz. The factor of
eight improvement in frequency resolution over previous multibeam surveys
allows us to probe deeper into the Galactic plane for short duration signals
such as the pulses from millisecond pulsars. We plan to survey the entire
southern sky in 42641 pointings, split into low, mid and high Galactic latitude
regions, with integration times of 4200, 540 and 270 s respectively.
Simulations suggest that we will discover 400 pulsars, of which 75 will be
millisecond pulsars. With ~30% of the mid-latitude survey complete, we have
re-detected 223 previously known pulsars and discovered 27 pulsars, 5 of which
are millisecond pulsars. The newly discovered millisecond pulsars tend to have
larger dispersion measures than those discovered in previous surveys, as
expected from the improved time and frequency resolution of our instrument.Comment: Updated author list. 10 pages, 7 figures. For publication in MNRA
Isolated neutron stars and studies of their interiors
In these lectures presented at Baikal summer school on physics of elementary
particles and astrophysics 2011, I present a wide view of neutron star
astrophysics with special attention paid to young isolated compact objects and
studies of the properties of neutron star interiors using astronomical methods.Comment: 28 pages, lecture notes for the Baikal-2011 summer school on physics
of elementary particles and astrophysic
Interstellar Turbulence II: Implications and Effects
Interstellar turbulence has implications for the dispersal and mixing of the
elements, cloud chemistry, cosmic ray scattering, and radio wave propagation
through the ionized medium. This review discusses the observations and theory
of these effects. Metallicity fluctuations are summarized, and the theory of
turbulent transport of passive tracers is reviewed. Modeling methods, turbulent
concentration of dust grains, and the turbulent washout of radial abundance
gradients are discussed. Interstellar chemistry is affected by turbulent
transport of various species between environments with different physical
properties and by turbulent heating in shocks, vortical dissipation regions,
and local regions of enhanced ambipolar diffusion. Cosmic rays are scattered
and accelerated in turbulent magnetic waves and shocks, and they generate
turbulence on the scale of their gyroradii. Radio wave scintillation is an
important diagnostic for small scale turbulence in the ionized medium, giving
information about the power spectrum and amplitude of fluctuations. The theory
of diffraction and refraction is reviewed, as are the main observations and
scintillation regions.Comment: 46 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Annual Reviews of Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The Interstellar Environment of our Galaxy
We review the current knowledge and understanding of the interstellar medium
of our galaxy. We first present each of the three basic constituents - ordinary
matter, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields - of the interstellar medium, laying
emphasis on their physical and chemical properties inferred from a broad range
of observations. We then position the different interstellar constituents, both
with respect to each other and with respect to stars, within the general
galactic ecosystem.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures (including 3 figures in 2 parts
- …